374 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1107 



age of those graduates. The number of physicians 

 is estimated from the numbers given in the last 

 edition of the American Medical Directory, an 

 arbitrary allowance of 24 per cent, being made for 

 women physicians. The number of physicians of 

 a given age is estimated like that of college stu- 

 dents but twenty-five is taken for the minimum 

 age. The estimates of the Johns Hopkins gradu- 

 ates are based on actual figures. The numbers of 

 those given in "Who's Who" are taken from the 

 last edition but the age ratio and sex ratios are 

 taken from data given in the 1903-05 edition. The 

 estimates of those included in "American Men of 

 Science" are based on the figures 5,536 for all in- 

 dividuals and 1,201 for starred individuals (269 

 names being added to the list of 1,000 in the first 

 edition and 68 removed). The age ratios for the 

 thousand leading men given by Cattell in the last 

 edition are used for estimating the number of in- 

 dividuals of a given age in both lists. Since the 

 age of the leading men tends to be higher than 

 that of those not attaining distinction, this method 

 of estimating probably gives figures smaller than 

 the actual figures for those merely included in the 

 total list and possibly also for those who make up 

 the 200 starred individuals in excess of the 1,000 

 on which Cattell bases his estimates. Since, how- 

 ever, no allowance has been made for the two or 

 three per cent, of women in the lists and for 

 Canadians in the first list, it is probable that the 

 estimates used give sufficiently accurate results 

 for our present purposes. Cattell in his statistical 

 tables shows at what institutions 515 of the first 



Since relatively few women are included 

 in "Who's Who" and in "American Men 

 of Science" and only one of the fifty-one 

 living women graduates in our Ust, we can 

 get the best idea of the relative distinction 

 indicated by inclusion in these two lists by 

 comparing the percentage of men graduates 

 included in these lists with the percentage 

 of other men of similar age thus included. 

 The average age of the men of the first five 

 classes may be taken for "Who's Who" to 

 be from about 40 to 45 years of age and of 

 those included in "American Men of Sci- 

 ence" from about 35 to 40 years of age. 

 The average age of those of the second five 

 classes may be taken to be about five years 

 less. Without going here into detail we 

 may say the percentage of graduates of the 

 second five classes included in these lists 

 is about ten times as great as would be ex- 

 pected from them as physicians and from 

 nearly four to eight times as great as would 

 be expected from them as college graduates. 

 The percentage of those of the first five 

 classes included in the lists is from twenty- 

 three to nearly sixty times as great as 

 would be expected from them as physicians 

 and from eight to fifteen times as great as 



thousand men of science received their bachelor's 

 degree but he does not give figures showing the 

 number not receiving a bachelor's degree. Pearse 

 in his analysis of the medical group (Science, 

 XLII., p. 277, 1915) shows that about 22 per 

 cent, of those contributing to the medical sciences 

 took no bachelor's degree, although many of these 

 did some college work. Since this group compared 

 with other groups contains a high percentage of 

 investigators who took no bachelor 's degree we 

 may take 15 per cent, as an arbitrary proportion 

 in estimating the number of such men and this 

 has been done in estimating the percentage of col- 

 lege graduates included in "American Men of 

 Science" and among the starred individuals. 

 Test counts supported those estimates. The age 

 ratios are estimated as given above. Scott Near- 

 ing has recently made a study of 2,000 men in 

 "Who's Who" of about the age of those here 

 studied. Scieittific Monthly, January, 1916. 



